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From: olender@sor.CS.ColoState.Edu (Kurt Olender)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2
Subject: Security concerns for OS/2?
Message-ID: <5341@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Date: 15 Mar 90 17:46:49 GMT
Sender: news@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU
Reply-To: olender@sor.CS.ColoState.Edu (Kurt Olender)
Organization: Colorado State University, Ft. Collins CO 80523
Lines: 22

Not being an expert either on DOS or OS/2, but having recently
installed OS/2 v1.2 on my home machine (also recently installed), I'm
concerned about the potential for virus infection, trojan horse
invasion, and all the other plagues that have struck the PC world.
There seem to be enough similarities that it might be possible for a
PC/DOS virus to infect an OS/2 system.  So I have some questions.

1. Does anyone know of, or have experience with, these problems under OS/2?
   Have there been any reports of OS/2-specific viruses?
2. Is an OS/2 system susceptible to a virus designed for DOS?
3. Does running HPFS make any difference?  Do routines that convert FAT 
   file requests from the DOS box to HPFS requests filter out the kind of 
   direct disk operations that a virus might require to infect a file?
4. Do the virus detectors available for DOS work under OS/2?
5. Any recommendations for precautions apart from proper backups and 
   downloading software only from reasonably trustworthy sources?

P. S. Obviously, there is always the potential, so caution is the word of 
the day, but I'd like some hard information on which to base my precautions 
if there is any about.

I'll summarize to the net if I get sufficient e-mail response.